


The Gold Motel: Father’s Day (prompt)

by mrgoldsdearie



Series: Gold Motel: prompts [11]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 11:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6751369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrgoldsdearie/pseuds/mrgoldsdearie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Norman receives his first Father’s Day gift. (Events take place a few months before Belle kills Cora.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gold Motel: Father’s Day (prompt)

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s a prompt no one asked for, but I felt like I needed to write it. I got an ask yesterday during TMI Tuesday asking Norman about Father’s Day and I woke up today with this idea. So this is just a short silly thing that I wanted to share. Happy reading.

Norman Gold stands at the desk of the motel office, folding a page he ripped out of the sign in book into a paper airplane. He carefully bends the left wing, then creases the right and the craft is now set for flight.

A white van suddenly pulls into the gravel lot, parking in front of the open office. The driver steps out, paces to the back of the van and opens the hatch door.

Norman watches the man and scoots his newly crafted airplane out of the way. He opens the sign in book and waits for the customer to come inside.

The man pulls out a bouquet of pink, yellow and orange roses, and carries them up to the office.

Norman stands puzzled as the man makes his way closer to the desk. Maybe this delivery is for the wrong address.

“G-g-good afternoon, sir,” Norman greets the man with a smile.

“Same to you.” He rests the fresh cut flowers on the desk. “I have a delivery for Norman Gold.”

“Th-th-these are for me?” Norman’s face brightens with awe.

“If your Mr. Gold they are,” he chuckles.

“Yes, I am,” Norman answers, cheeks blushing the same shade of pink as his new roses. “I’m just sur-surprised.”

“I think you were meant to be,” the delivery man says kindly. “I just need your autograph and they’re all yours.” He hands over the clipboard and a pen from his shirt pocket.

“Oh, of course.” Norman gently takes the board and pen, then scribbles down his name. “Thank you.” Hands him back the items.

“You’re welcome.” He slips the pen back into his pocket. “Enjoy your Father’s Day.”

Norman’s eyes widen, having realized it’s Father’s Day for him as well. “Umm…. I will,” he quickly replies with a nod.

The man flashes another friendly grin and returns to his van for the next delivery.

Norman stares at the the flowers, heart warmed with joy. He’s never received a cherished gift on such a difficult day.

He pulls the flowers closer to him and his nose is kissed with their natural perfume. He didn’t know roses could smell so vibrant.

He turns the vase to view every flower and finds a card hanging on one of the roses.

“I knew you got them.” Belle announces, standing in the doorway, holding their daughter on her hip. “I saw that van pulling out, so the baby and I rushed down to see you.” She glides up to the desk, sitting Baelee on top. “Happy Father’s Day, sweetie.”

“Thank you, Belle. Th-th-these were unexpected. I didn’t think I’d g-g-get anything today.”

“I know you probably would have preferred not getting anything. There’s so many mixed emotions that runs through you on this day, but I couldn’t help it. It wouldn’t have felt right for you to have your first Father’s Day without getting anything. I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, d-d-dearie, I don’t mind,” he assures her.

“You don’t?”

“No.” He picks up his daughter and kisses her rosy cheeks.

“I’m glad, Norman.” She holds his hand. “Did you see the card?”

“I was just about to read it b-b-before you came in.”

“We made it for you.”

“That m-m-makes it even more special,” Norman says, taking the card from the flower and sees the front for the first time.

Belle had crafted the motel and their house from construction paper on the card’s face. It’s the most beautiful card Norman has ever seen.

“You know, Belle, the m-m-motel isn’t yellow anymore,” he teases.

“I know, but I didn’t want to put a white building on a white card.”

“I thought that was why.” Kisses his wife on the brow. “It’s gorgeous.”  Norman then opens the card and reads _Happy Father’s Day_ under the scribbled lines of a heavy black marker. “Bae,” he says breathy, choked up with emotion.

“I had to put the marker in her hand, but she wrote everything on her own.”

“She wrote so much.” He dries the tear from his cheek. “I wonder what it says.”

“Let’s me see it, sweetie. I can read baby.”

“You c-c-can read baby?”, Norman asks, puzzled. “Since when?”

“Since I became a mother,” she answers confidently with a proud smirk.

“I c-c-can’t read baby.”

“It’s okay, Norman.” She lightly shoulder bumps him. “We all develop our parental superpowers at different stages.”

“Oh…. Well, I see…,” he laughs, giving her a shoulder bump of his own. “So what d-d-does it say?”

“Hmm.” She squints at the card, turning it several directions. “Oh, now I see. It’s very interesting.”

“What d-d-does it say, my love?”

“It says; Daddy, I love you. Sometimes even more than mommy, because you make those delicious potatoes with the cabbage and cheese. Could you make them tonight? Love always, Baelee.”

“That’s n-n-not what it says,” Norman chuckles.

“I promise you that’s exactly what it says, sweetie. Why would I make that up?”

“I d-d-don’t know why, but you would.”

“I would never,” she pouts. “Bae.” She rests her hand on her daughter’s back, gently soothing her. “Didn’t mommy read exactly what you wrote?”

Bealee smiles and tangles her hands in her father’s hair.

“Ouch!”, Norman yelps.

“I told you I didn’t make it up.”

“Okay, okay, I b-b-believe you now.” He pulls her little hands out of his silver locks. “I’ll never th-th-think that you can’t read baby again.”

“Good.” She nods.

“Well, it looks like we’re t-t-taking  a trip to the store.”

“Yay, Bae, it worked.” She claps her daughter’s hands.  

“I knew th-th-this was a plot against me.”

“Bae was the mastermind.”

“That’s what I figured.”

“Thank you, sweetie.” She kisses his cheek and the back of Baelee’s head. “My car keys are in the house, so we need the spare.” She tries to open one of top drawers of the office desk, but it’s doesn’t budge. “Ugh, I keep meaning to ask you about this stubborn drawer. It’s always jammed. You need a new desk, honey.”

“Oh, th-th-that drawer isn’t jammed,” Norman admits.

“It’s not?”

“No, it’s locked.”

“Locked?” She crosses her arms, shifting her weight to the lift. There’s no good reason for a locked drawer, except the money drawer back in the parlor. “Why is it locked?”

“That’s Papa’s drawer. He keeps some p-p-personal things in there.”

“You’ve never told me that.”

“You’ve n-n-never asked about it until now.”

“Well, I kept forgetting to ask about it.”she combs her fingers through the baby’s curly hair. “So, what’s in it?”

“I d-d-don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No.”

“But you have the key, don’t you?”

He nods, silently answering yes.

“But you’ve never looked inside?”

“No,” he answers shaking his head.

“Aren’t you curious as to what’s in it?”

“No. I haven’t t-t-touched it in twenty years and I’m not g-g-going to touch it now.”

“Norman….” She gently turns his hand to face her. “Your papa has been gone for months and as good as things have been going for you, I don’t think he’ll be back.”

Norman and Belle haven’t seen or heard anything from Papa since the week Baelee was born. But Norman has a feeling he'll be back.

“Belle, I’m n-n-not opening it. And it’s not because he told me not to, because he d-d-didn’t.” Norman explains. He may not know what’s inside the drawer, but he does know it’s important to his papa. “It’s be-because it’s not my stuff.”

“Okay, sweetie, I understand. It’s just a stupid drawer full of junk. Probably.“ She shrugs. “It never bothered us before, why should we be bothered by it now?”

“Thank you, Belle.”

“You’re welcome,”she cups his cheek, gazing lovingly into her brown eyes. If it’s important for him to keep the drawer locked, then she won’t question him any further about it. “Now where’s that spare set of keys?”

“Th-th-they’re over here.” He opens the bottom drawer on the left side of the desk and hands Belle the keys. “Can take Bae out to th-th-the car?”

“Sure.” She takes the child from her husband’s arms. “Come here you little giggle monster. Daddy’s gonna make your wish come true,” she says, stepping out of the office.

Norman picks up his paper airplane. And he watches his wife securely buckle their daughter into her car seat. He sharpens the creases in the wings so that they catch enough air when it takes it’s first flight.

*honk honk*

Belle gains Norman’s attention, taking her seat at the wheel.

“I’m coming,” he shouts and sends the paper craft through the air.

It lands at its destination, stuck on top of the window shade of the office parlor.

Norman smiles at the paper toy hanging on the edge of window shade, then heads out to meet up with his family.

##  **—–**

_[Three hours later]_

The sun sets over the small town of Storybrooke, as the door to the motel office slowly cracks open. Norman limps inside the office and staggers to the desk. He isn’t feeling quite like himself.

He smells the flowers on the desk. It’s the most beautiful floral aroma he’s smelled in ages. “These are gorgeous, Norman,” Robert Gold’s voice slips from his lips.

After Norman cooked dinner for his family and Belle laid the baby down to rest, Robert surfaced at a time when he thought no one would notice.

It’s Father’s Day and no matter how rocky their relationship has grown, Norman always leaves a gift for his Papa.

Robert steps into the parlor and searches for his gift. He knows exactly where to look.

He takes the paper airplane down from the window shade and gimps with it back to the front desk.

Norman has left his Papa a paper airplane every Father’s Day since the day they’ve ment. Hiding them in the shade was the best way of making sure Malcolm didn’t find them and mistake the gifts as his own.

Though Malcolm has been gone for years, they never changed the way they exchange the gift.

Robert unfolds the plane and reads the note the from his son

 

> _I know you did the best you could. Happy Father’s Day._
> 
> _-Norman_

Robert smiles proudly and takes out a set of keys from his pocket, unlocking the top drawer of the desk. He places the note inside with every paper plane Norman has ever made him. He straightens the stack of old papers and carefully places them back inside. He then locks the drawer until it’s time to add a new one to his most cherished collection.


End file.
